Sweet Milk- A delicious, natural alternative to other sweeteners, including honey, etc

I recently borrowed this wonderful, older book from my college library. I was amazed they even had it. I’m pretty sure I will be purchasing it soon. It’s called Sweet and Natural Desserts without Sugar, Honey, Molasses, or Artificial Sweeteners and it’s by Janet Warrington. Though published in 1982, I find it a very useful reference and wish I could get in contact with the author. I am going to post this recipe and hope that it is ok. I am giving all credit to Janet and her cookbook. :)

The following is quoted from her book on page 29.

“Sweet Milk: Naturally sweet, this milk is delicious on cold or hot cereals and grains. It is also a common ingredient in many of my desserts. I like to keep a jar of it hanging around in my refrigerator for spur of the moment baking. It should be made at least one day in advance for use, but reaches peak sweetness after two or three days.

Ingredients: 2 cups reconstituted nonfat milk

2/3 c. raisins

1. Combine milk and raisins in a jar, cover and refrigerate at least overnight.

2. Before using, shake the jar vigorously. Milk should be an ivory color.

3. Strain the milk to remove the raisins which will be mushy and a little flat tasting.

4. Use milk as directed.”

So, after quoting that, let me tell you a little bit about what I do. I do, as she says, except, I haven’t tried it with reconstituted/dry milk. I usually use just the milk I buy from the store. If you are dairy-free, I think this would work well with any-other dairy-free milk.

I usually store it in the fridge for a few days and I find that it gets the sweetest after about 2-3 days…and turns the color up above. I showed “regular” milk beside it so you can see the difference. It is a great sweetener and I’ve been experimenting a lot with it (and have had both failures and successes) and will post some recipes with it soon.

Hopefully, it is ok to post this here and if anyone knows how I can contact the author, let me know! Thanks!

**UPDATE**: Aubree Cherie said,

“I wanted to let you know that I tried the sweet milk with unsweetened soymilk. It worked great! I left it to absorb the raisins for about 3 days. I used it in place of regular milk and a sugar substitute in a bread recipe – the bread turned out perfect! So thanks again for posting that ”

So, for all of you that were wondering if this would work with non-dairy milk, here is your happy answer! :)

18 Comments

Very clever! I make a raisin cookie recipe that reminds me of this concept a bit. I have yet to share the recipe so I won’t share why yet ;-) , but this does make perfect sense. I’m going to have to think about which recipes I can apply this idea to. Thanks so much!

Are you using this in place of sugar or just reducing the amount of sugar and using this too. Recently I posted on my blog that you could also use apple juice concentrate as a sweetener alternative. Are you using this when making cookies and such and how does it turn out? I am very interested in trying this and watching your progress as you post more.

Debbie—-Thanks for commenting! I am using this IN PLACE OF sugar (and honey, agave, etc)! I have used apple juice concentrate before as a sweetener alternative too. I like it. :) I’ve been experimenting with the sweet milk in a couple different things-with both success’s and failures. Keep your eye on the lookout though for an awesome muffin recipe that I hope to post here soon using sweet milk IN PLACE OF honey or sugar. :) -Ari